ICON Public (NASDAQ:ICLR) Cut to “Neutral” at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of ICON Public (NASDAQ:ICLR) from an overweight rating to a neutral rating in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has $150.00 target price on the medical research company’s stock, down from their previous target price of $265.00.

Several other brokerages have also commented on ICLR. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of ICON Public in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Barclays reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $165.00 target price (down from $240.00) on shares of ICON Public in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on ICON Public from $221.00 to $203.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Citigroup cut their price target on ICON Public from $290.00 to $215.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $263.00 price objective on shares of ICON Public in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, ICON Public presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $223.08.

ICON Public Trading Down 4.1 %

NASDAQ:ICLR opened at $145.21 on Tuesday. ICON Public has a 1 year low of $133.28 and a 1 year high of $347.72. The stock has a market cap of $11.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.24, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.26. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $166.12 and a 200-day simple moving average of $197.17.

ICON Public (NASDAQ:ICLR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The medical research company reported $3.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.17 by $0.02. ICON Public had a return on equity of 11.81% and a net margin of 9.56%. The firm had revenue of $2 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.47 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that ICON Public will post 13.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ICLR. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in ICON Public by 15,701.6% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 68,421 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $119,730,000 after purchasing an additional 67,988 shares in the last quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS boosted its stake in shares of ICON Public by 40.6% in the fourth quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS now owns 97,102 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $20,363,000 after buying an additional 28,050 shares in the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of ICON Public by 6.7% in the fourth quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 177,761 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $37,279,000 after buying an additional 11,177 shares in the last quarter. Foyston Gordon & Payne Inc raised its position in ICON Public by 27.3% in the fourth quarter. Foyston Gordon & Payne Inc now owns 51,713 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $10,845,000 after acquiring an additional 11,089 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its holdings in ICON Public by 25.3% in the first quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 25,905 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $4,533,000 after acquiring an additional 5,229 shares during the period. 95.61% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

ICON Public Company Profile

ICON Public Limited Company, a clinical research organization, provides outsourced development and commercialization services in Ireland, rest of Europe, the United States, and internationally. The company specializes in the strategic development, management, and analysis of programs that support various stages of the clinical development process from compound selection to Phase I-IV clinical studies.